The Hobbit - The Movie: Speculation and Discussion

[MICHKA]

C'est comme ''Hourrah!!'', ou ''Allelluia!'' c'est quand on est très content, Merry; tous les théâtres font la bande annonce de ce Hobbit qui a l'air très alléchant, tentant, séduisant; vivement le 12/12/12 (qui n'est pas la fin du monde, quoique en ont dit les Mayas!

[Merry]

'The Hobbit' debuts here on December 14--not such an auspicious day on the Mayan calendar, I guess! My impression is that there hasn't been much excitement about it here, but it may be that I've been too busy grading essays to notice it. (The press has been too busy trying to get us to buy too much for Christmas!) I imagine once the movie is out, word will spread.

[Merry]

Here's the first review I've read of the movie, from one of the TOR.n staffers, Calisuri:

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2012/12 ... ing-frame/

A bit of a mixed review, I'd say, although I like his advice at the end.

[Lindariel]

Ian McKellen has posted several reviews to Facebook -- all generally favorable, the only unfavorable comments relate to the new film speed. Some like it, some don't, but all seem to agree that PJ & Co. have got a hit on their hands and have done a fabulous job adapting The Hobbit to the big screen. I can't WAIT to see it, but I'm probably NOT going to try to brave the crowds to see it on Dec. 14. Will probably wait until the following week and let the furor die down a bit.

[Merry]

Many of the reviews I've read also say the movie is just too dang long and the material is too stretched out. We Tolkien lovers will probably be okay with that, but not everybody.

Here's a nice interview with Armitage:

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2012/12 ... ering-net/

[Merry]

I just saw Elijah on Jimmy Fallon and they showed a clip of Frodo nailing that "No Admittance Except on Party Business" sign on the gate. Martin Freeman was made up to look like older Bilbo. I'm not sure if a local theater here will have the new screening technology, but it'll be interesting to see how all of these make-up creations hold up in the face of it.

Older Elijah does kind of look like Martin Freeman a little!

[Merry]

Here's a clever piece from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/opini ... .html?_r=0

If you haven't made it to the archives, it's definitely worth the trip!

[MICHKA]

merci, excellent article ,Tolkien est encore toujours actuel et à découvrir, c'est génial!sa terre du milieu est un sujet inépuisable....

[MICHKA]

Je viens de voir le 1er volet, pour moi il y a une trop grande débauche d'effets spéciaux ,surtout durant les batailles avec tous ces monstres plus laids les uns que les autres, mais l'histoire est bien racontée et Bibon est crédible, les décors sont splendides,et on retrouve avec un plaisir complice les personnages vus dans LSDA.

[Merry]

Thanks for the review, Michka! PJ does like his monsters, doesn't he? I've read lots of reviews that say that Bilbo is perfect, so I look forward to seeing this beloved character brought to life! (probably not until next week, though).

[Lindariel]

Merry, I get such an undeserved thrill from every review that praises Martin Freeman's performance. Ever since rumors began circulating that PJ & Co. were planning to make a movie of The Hobbit, I have been saying that Martin Freeman would be the perfect actor for the part. I had never seen him in the British TV series The Office, and this was well before his popularity skyrocketed due to his incredible performances as Dr. Watson in the new BBC Sherlock miniseries. I based my opinions solely on his wonderful performance as Arthur Dent in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and his cameo in "Love Actually."

He is a wonderful, wonderful character actor, and he looks like a younger Sir Ian Holm. I KNEW he would be wonderful as Bilbo, and I'm just so pleased PJ & Co. cast him in this part. Can't WAIT to see his performance tomorrow!

[Merry]

I look forward to your report, Lindariel!

[Lindariel]

SPOILER ALERT


I saw The Hobbit in high frame format last night with my two daughters, and we all LOVED the film. As with LOTR, PJ & Co. take considerable liberties with the story, aside from the extrapolations from the LOTR appendices, almost from the very beginning. Like LOTR, I feel some of these departures are unnecessary, but on the whole, I feel the film works extremely well.

I liked the high frame format a great deal. I felt as though I could walk right into the story, if I wished, and the colors are just amazingly beautiful. At the beginning, I did have to become accustomed to the "realness" of it, which makes it feel like a documentary on Middle-earth. But I became immersed in the story very quickly, and it no longer bothered me. As some reviewers have already noted, some of the CGI effects look "pasted on" in the high frame format, but the sheer beauty of the colors and the sense of being surrounded and encompassed by the film far outweigh these slight technical issues. I suspect those issues will be ironed out as movie technology continues to advance, and I completely agree with PJ that this is very likely the future of film-making. Just amazing!

I think whether a person will like this film or not will depend entirely upon their expectations going in (action film afficianados and people unfamiliar with Tolkien may find the more character-driven sections to be "slow") or their attitude towards Tolkien and Peter Jackson films in general. If you go into the film prepared to tear it apart, then you will surely find things that bother you. If you go into the film prepared to lose yourself in Middle-earth and enjoy a great story (even if it isn't entirely faithful to the Professor's tale), then you will thoroughly and completely enjoy this experience.

I happen to be among the latter!

As far as the performances are concerned, Martin Freeman is absolutely brilliant as Bilbo. He is completely present in the film, his alert, open, expressive face reflecting Bilbo's every thought and emotion. As others have already mentioned, the "Riddles in the Dark" scene with Andy Serkis is a tour-de-force, just completely splendid. Andy Serkis gives yet another genius performance as the schizophrenic Smeagol/Gollum, and it is just delicious watching these two wonderful actors pinging off each other every single moment of the scene.

Sir Ian McKellen is completely wonderful as Gandalf the Grey, and it is splendid to see the old fellow back on the screen enjoying his pipe and being his irascible self, herding this passle of 13 cantankerous dwarves, including their proud, thick-necked, pugnacious, yet heroic leader Thorin Oakenshield, through this adventure.

I particularly appreciated the backstory PJ & Co. provide on the history of the Dwarves of Erebor, the beauty and grandeur of their civilization at the height of its glory, the devastating loss of their Kingdom Under the Mountain to Smaug, and then the further decimation of their population in their disasterous attempt to regain the lost Kingdom of Khazad-dum. The Battle of Azanulbizar is just utterly and completely brutal, but if anyone had any doubts about the fierceness of dwarves in battle, this film will dispell any of those doubts. These dwarf warriors are completely ferocious! I will caution that PJ does take some liberties, and the Battle of Azanulbizar is NOT faithful to canon, but it DOES effectively make the point about the double devastation of the Dwarves of Erebor and makes Thorin's rather single-minded determination to regain his lost Kingdom much better context than we get in the original story of The Hobbit.

I enjoyed Richard Armitage as Thorin, and I'm hoping we'll see continuing development of his character in movies 2 and 3. He certainly makes a splendid warrior, and he carries off Thorin's combination of nobility, arrogance, and pugnacious stubbornness with great aplomb. I am looking forward to seeing what Armitage does with the character as Thorin begins to succumb to the "dragon sickness" later in the story. I DISAGREE COMPLETELY with reviewers that have tried to describe Armitage's performance as Aragorn redux. Armitage's Thorin has much, much, MUCH more in common with Sean Bean's Boromir in feeling, tone, and character arc. Where Viggo's Aragorn was the reluctant, dutiful, self-denying, self-sacrificing King-in-Exile, Armitage's Thorin has an enormous chip on his shoulder and is bent on revenge and restoring his people to their homeland. The characters are COMPLETELY different from the first moment Thorin appears.

I was prepared to take exception to PJ's depiction of Thranduil "failing" to come to the aid of the Dwarves during Smaug's attack on Erebor, since this absolutely did NOT happen in the books. But then I remembered that PJ does NOT have the rights to use any material from The Silmarillion, and hence does not have access to the REAL reason behind the enmity between the Dwarves and the Elves (the slaughter of Elu Thingol by the petty dwarves over the Silmaril that set up unremitting racial hatred between the Sindarin Elves and all Dwarves), so he has created this instead to provide a reason for Thorin's distrust of the Elves, and vice versa. I imagine we will learn more about Thranduil's reasons for turning his people away and not helping the Dwarves and the people of Dale when Smaug attacked in movies 2 and 3. I did like the visual of Thranduil riding to war on a large fully-antlered elk! Very much in keeping with the depiction of the Elvenking as Tolkien's version of "The Green Man/Knight" from Celtic myths and the Arthurian legends!

Sylvester McCoy's Radagast is an interesting performance. He is a terrific character actor, and I'm glad to see Radagast being given a role in The Hobbit. That being said, I do wish his Radagast was a bit less "dotty." It is possible to be eccentric and prefer the company of animals without being completely kooky, and I wish PJ and McCoy hadn't decided to play one of the Istari for laughs. The rabbit-powered sleigh will delight children, but I thought it made Radagast look more like a demented version of Santa Claus and his reindeer, and I just couldn't get past that image. I'm already dreading the visual of Dain Ironfoot arriving at the Battle of Five Armies on the much-rumored War Pig!!!

It was marvelous to see Cate Blanchett, Sir Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Elijah Wood, and Sir Ian Holm reprising their characters from LOTR. Cate Blanchett's Galadriel is even more radiant and mysterious, and I greatly enjoyed her osanwe communications with Gandalf during the meeting of the White Council, a wonderful way of quietly depicting Galadriel's preference for Gandalf to have led the Council rather than Saruman. We see Saruman already down-playing the possibility that the Necromancer could be a power and insisting that he must be just some mortal dabbling in dark magic. Hmmmmm . . . could Saruman already be using the palantir and contemplating world domination? Lee's voice has lost none of its resonance and magic with age, and I'm so glad PJ made arrangements for him to film his scenes in London, since he is no longer able to travel to New Zealand.

Hugo Weaving's Elrond gets to make a WONDERFUL entrance, and once again I found him splendid in this role. He gives Elrond an exoticism -- very samurai warrioresque -- that I find extremely appealing. Elijah Wood's Frodo is once again bright-eyed and innocent and just adorable, and it is terrific to see Frodo again BEFORE the burden of the Ring is imposed upon him. And Sir Ian Holm -- how amazing he is! Once again, he beautifully captures the elder Bilbo, wise and eccentric from his adventures, but feeling the strain of being "butter spread across too much bread." He introduces us to the history of the Dwarves of Erebor, and we feel him trying to find some way to explain to Frodo the weight of what he is inheriting. Hearing Sir Ian say the words, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit," is just pure delight!

So have no fear! You may have quibbles here and there, but I believe you will all love this film!

[MICHKA]

Je crois bien que je retournerai le voir plusieurs fois pour bien m'en imprégner, comme je l'ai fait lors de ma découverte du Seigneur des Anneaux; et de toutes façons :revoir les superbes images du royaume des nains , la Comté, est si précieux et envoûtant

[Merry]

Thanks for the detailed review, Lindariel! I still haven't found anyone of my friends who want to see it, so I may have to wait until I get home for Christmas and hope that one of the nephews will want to see it again. (I haven't gotten the knack of going to movies alone yet--have you?)

I do think it's sort of natural for your average reviewer to liken Thorin to Aragorn. I agree with you that they aren't the same role, but at this point, who else is the standard heroic figure in 'The Hobbit'? We haven't gotten to Bard yet.

I am looking forward to the kinder versions of Gandalf and Elrond. The little I've seen of Gandalf in clips, they've done a good job in making his age appear about the same, but his voice sounds a bit older than ten years ago. In an interview with Elijah, he said that they had digitally de-aged his (Frodo's) face. He may be the actor who has changed the most in the intervening years.